HEAVY rain yesterday caused flooding and landslides in sections of St Mary, Portland, St Thomas and St Andrew, leaving residents in some communities marooned and some roads impassable.

Manager for communication and customer services at the National Works Agency (NWA), Stephen Shaw, said the Pencar River in St Mary overflowed its banks, resulting in the flooding of several homes in Annotto Bay.

The Junction Road in St Mary, which was earlier in the day impassable because of landslides, was later reopened to vehicular traffic.

However, up to late evening several roads in the affected parishes were still impassable.

Shaw, in a late afternoon release, said that in St Thomas, Hagley Gap was inaccessible to vehicular traffic, while in St Mary the Rosemont, Border to Coffee Gully, Long Road, and the Windsor Castle to Long Cane Hill roads were inaccessible.

In Portland, landslides caused blockages from Silver Hill Gap to Section, Buff Bay to Cascade, Windsor to Moore Town, and the road leading to the community of Ginger House. The community of Belview was inaccessible, so too was Craigmill, Bottom Eden and Ythanside.

Shaw said that heavy equipment was deployed across the affected parishes regained some of the affected communities.

The New Castle Road in St Andrew, which was blocked by landslide earlier in the day, was reopened by the NWA, while in Portland corridors from School House Corner to Chepstowe, Spring Garden to Chepstowe, Mount Olive to Coopers Hill, and Fellowship to Berrydale were reopened to single-lane traffic.

In St Catherine, the Rio Cobre was in spate, forcing the police to close the Bog Walk Gorge.

In the meantime, the Meteorological Service last night said a flash flood warning was in place for low-lying and flood-prone areas of Portland, St Mary and St Ann, while there was a flash flood watch for low-lying and flood-prone areas of St Catherine, Clarendon, Kingston and St Andrew, and St Thomas.

“A broad trough currently across the central Caribbean continues to produce unstable weather across Jamaica. The trough is expected to linger across the region until Saturday and will continue to influence the weather over the island during the period,” said the Met Service.

It said that the forecast is for cloudy conditions with periods of light to moderate rainfall and occasional thunderstorms to continue affecting sections of all parishes, particularly central and eastern parishes this evening into Saturday.